Historic Highlights

1848 NJ first state to keep records of births, deaths and marriages
1849 Cholera Epidemic
1859 NJ State Sewage Commission established
1865 Cholera Epidemic
1865 State Sanitary Commission appointed by legislature.
1866 Cholera epidemic strikes New Jersey
1872 American Public Health Association holds its first meeting in Long Branch
1875 The New Jersey Sanitary Association was organized (later to become the NJ Public Health Association in 1951)
1877 Legislature creates State Board of Health, Dr. Ezra Mundy Hunt Secretary
1880 NJ Legislature establishes local boards of health in rural areas
1895 Reporting of contagious diseases
1903 NJ first state to license health officers and sanitary inspectors

Medical Exams at Ellis Island

1906 National food and drug laws written
1915 Legislature establishes NJ State Board of Health
1918 Maternal and Child Health Unit established in Department of Health

Influenza devastates more than WWI

1927 NJ Sanitary Association becomes NJ Health and Sanitary Association
1930 Interstate Sanitary Commission (NY, NJ and CT) monitors coastal pollution
1944 Selman Waksman discovers Streptomycin at Rutgers
1946 National school lunch program
1947 NJ State Constitution revised State Board of Health abolished, Public Health Council established
1952 Prevention and Chronic Illness Act
1955 Air Pollution Control Commission
1955 Salk vaccine against Polio
1956 Diabetes declared a public health problem by Commissioner of Health
1958 Radiation Protection Committee, NJDOH
1959 New Jersey Public Health Association formed by merging New Jersey Health and Sanitary Association with the State of New Jersey Councils of Local Public Health
1961 Minimum standards recognized public health activities for local health departments
1963 Fallout shelter set up in public buildings
1972 WIC ? special supplemental food program for women, infants and children established
1974 NJPHA advocates for strong laws on child abuse, NJPHA President invited to Trenton for signing the Bill into Law
1981 AIDS first recognized

HIV/AIDS Public Health Campaign

1988 Blood vials washed up on Jersey shore found to contain antibody to HIV, medical waste becomes national issue during Presidential campaign
1990 Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990
1992 Tuberculosis: back with a vengeance
1995 New Jersey Public Health Association holds its annual meeting in Long Branch, 123 years after the American Public Health Association?s first meeting in that same city